By Catherine Louise Geach | Founder
Dear Kind Donors,
It is with enormous gratitude that I write on behalf of our School, because it is because of yourselves, that we are able to keep our School open and running, allowing us to take care of those Children who have been completely forgotten by society.
On August the 3rd 2024, our School will celebrate our 30th Anniversary since our Founding in 1994. It will be 32 years also since the Founding of our Cambodian NGO, the Khmer Cultural Development Institute. When then still barely out of adolesence I went on my red bicycle to the Supreme National Council in Phnom Penh, with the documents for ratification in my front basket!
As founder, I look back through the three decades since building our School in the midst of war. The Gratitude I personally feel for my beloved Staff and Children, for all those who have helped us, has no bounds.
Through war and peace, ups and downs, immense challenges, bereavement, but also sublime joy, has been an act of Pure Faith. When others gave up, gave discouraragement, when my life was threatened with kidnap and death and our School was threatened by soldiers with AK47 machine guns, or we were hunted by those with M16s, when dear colleagues and friends were murdered by the Khmer Rouge in the outlying districts, when extreme poverty and malnutrition cut short life expectancy, when there was shelling and the earth shook and our Children threw themselves on the ground in terror, one just kept going. We never lost our sense of humour or compassion. It made no difference if outside our walls, there was corruption or violence, one made sure that a Light was shining within oneself.
We have cared for each other in grave sickness and nursed those dying. In my early youth, I would happily carry huge sacks of rice, until tuberculosis of the spine prodded me into carrying rather lighter things, but still I do hard physical labour. We are not perfect, but there is pure Love. That Kindness that comes from the Heart and transcends all boundaries. My dear Colleagues who have done so very much and especially those great Masters who have dedicated their later years, their lives to our School and to preserving Traditional Cambodian Music and Culture, so that it be saved for future generations.
Each one of you has undertaken this Journey with us through your generosity, your thoughtfulness and goodwill.
Those Children of 1994, of 2004, 2014, most with their own Children, some running their own businesses, some whom I have mentioned in earlier reports such as Lyda and Ngeth, Radi, Sambo and Kim Song are prominent Musicians and Dancers in Cambodia, with amongst many others,Sopheap and SreyMao working as Music Teachers. Then there is Kunthea who had Polio and took a Bachelors degree in Economics and now lives with her husband and Children in China, Sreyveth who worked first in the Ministry of Culture to help notate all the thousands of Music Pieces almost lost to the Khmer Rouge genocide and then who transfered to the Council of Ministers. There is Sameth who lost both his legs to an anti personnel mine and who won scholarships in Thailand and Switzerland and who runs a luxury hotel in Siem Reap. There are Navy, Ra, Puthy who work in Thailand and their brother Sok Mo in Battambang. There is Nary and Sreydet and Sreychea who work for business companies. There are so many of our dear Children, too many to write here, but we hope that they all will come on the 3rd of August, with their own families.
In the earlier days, many of our Children had lost their Parents directly or indirectly because of the War. They had been killed in rocket attacks, because of mines, or had died of tuberculosis or malaria or preventable diseases and childbirth. Now many of our Children have lost their parents because of Aids, other diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer, traffic accidents, but also abandonment. After the genocide and many decades of war, after the deaths of a third of the population and especially educated people, the social fabric of Cambodia was seriously damaged. This was exacerbated by the Cambodian government dictating the narrative of the Khmer Rouge genocide, many of themselves being ex members of the Khmer Rouge, thus not allowing ordinary people to speak freely, express their trauma adequately and find some form of vital healing. Indeed it is this latter, on the need for transcendent expression, to relieve trauma, which really pushed me to build our School in the first place, because as a professional Musician I knew the Healing power of Music. I had also witnessed firsthand, whilst teaching Violin at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, that the Traditional Music of Cambodia was then in danger of disappearing, there being only five great Music Masters left alive.
The collective unexpressed trauma of the People of Cambodia, reflects itself today in the number of cases of abandonment and serious abuse carried out on Children by extended family members, or neglect caused by drug or alcohol use by a parent or relative. Today we have Eleven young Girls and One very young disabled woman in our Care. All the Girls have endured serious abuse, neglect, or been in dangerous situations, with only three enduring severe poverty marginalization as the mitigating factor. Our young Boys include those whose Parents have abandoned them, been incarcerated or they are Children who have lost completely, everybody. We also have four Blind Youth and one of our Girls is sighted in one eye only. From early Childhood until Youth we take full time care of them, they have a complete scholastic education until Baccalaureate (A level), Traditional Cambodian Music and Performing Arts tuition at the highest level, Vocational Training for those planning on developing career skills and assistance with transition into University or Teaching College, if required.
As you all know, we also have an Emergency Temporary Shelter for battered women with small Children, pregnant, homeless mothers, parents in grave difficulty and Children found by the authorities wandering on the streets or in life threatening situations. We have our Emergency Food Package Program for those most vulnerable and suffering from malnutrition and destitution in Kampot Province and we give free Tuition in Cambodian Music and Dance to the Primary School Students of TaPream School in TrayKoh District, Kampot.
For all our Programs we coordinate with the local authorities, our Childsafe Partners and even sometimes the police. Our Staff do regular training in Childcare, Child Protection and also PSEA.
If you would like to help our School still further, please share this Newsletter and Appeal with your family and friends and if you are able, please kindly donate too!
To Donate, Please Read the Following Information>
On the 10th July, 2024, we will participate in the wonderful GlobalGiving Bonus Day, where GlobalGiving will give incentive matching funds to Donations of $100 upwards. It begins at 09.00 EDT, July 10th. The campaign will last either until matching funds run out, or at 23.59.59 on the same day. Please use this project link to Donate!
Thank you for your Wonderful Life affirming Help and Kindness!
With Every Kindest Wish and much Love from us all at our School in Kampot!
Recent Photographs courtesy of Steve Porte and made with the permission of our Children and Staff. KCDI Photograph from 1994 by DI Brown.
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